• Individual nominated: Andrew Mackie
• Organisation: Aberdeenshire Council

Statement of support

Andrew Mackie is the housing manager for Tenancy Services at Aberdeenshire Council, a position he has held since 2018 after a career in asset management. He oversees several critical teams and services across Aberdeenshire, including Sheltered Housing, Tenancy Services (Arrears and Tenancy Management), Tenant Participation, Community Safety, and resilience planning for emergencies like winter weather and flooding.

During the pandemic, Andrew’s team learned the value of proactive contact with tenants, a practice that proved crucial during subsequent emergencies, such as Storm Arwen in 2021 and Storm Babet in 2023. For Storm Babet, Andrew’s team made early calls to vulnerable tenants to discuss potential flooding, offer emergency planning advice, and manage expectations regarding repair delays, helping reduce stress during a challenging time.

Andrew has been a strong advocate for tenant empowerment and inclusion in decision-making at all levels. He has supported initiatives that streamline tenant working groups and move toward action-plan-based approaches, ensuring that tenant feedback is taken seriously. He has also promoted regular performance and financial monitoring within these groups to enhance scrutiny and accountability. Under his guidance, tenants have had a say in significant reviews, such as the Housing Business Plan and Rent Strategy, and have been included at the committee level in decision-making processes.

According to the sheltered housing manager, Andrew has been particularly supportive of tenant participation activities during the sheltered housing review. He has facilitated tenant feedback through individual meetings, questionnaires, and surveys conducted by an independent consultant. His approach ensures that any changes to service delivery are introduced in a manner that tenants can understand and at a pace that suits them, which is especially important for older residents in sheltered housing.

Andrew played a key role in designing tenant feedback mechanisms for Aberdeenshire’s 2023/24 Business Plan and Rent Strategy Reviews. This consultation process, unprecedented in its scope, involved extensive engagement with tenants, despite severe budget constraints. It included 17 stakeholder interviews, 12 focus groups with 64 tenant participants, 1,000 tenant interviews, and a large-scale survey with 1,233 responses. Efforts were also made to include tenants with specific needs, such as those identifying as Gypsy/Traveller and women affected by domestic violence.

Andrew’s strategic approach to tenant involvement extends to high-level decision-making opportunities. Tenants are now regularly invited to Housing Member-Officer Working Groups (MOWGs), where they review and discuss data, provide recommendations, and contribute to decisions that go to the committee. Since 2022, tenants have been represented at each MOWG, offering their insights on various topics and influencing outcomes. They also attend communities committee meetings, where they provide a tenant’s perspective on public and exempt reports and discuss decisions with their peers.

In 2024, Andrew championed the introduction of Participatory Budgeting (PB) within the housing service, linking it with local community associations to achieve broader goals. This ongoing initiative represents another step in Andrew’s commitment to involving tenants in shaping the services that affect their lives, ensuring that their voices are heard and their needs addressed at every level.

Outcomes and achievements

The 2024 Tenant Satisfaction Survey showed a majority of tenants are very or fairly satisfied with the opportunities given to them to participate in the housing service’s decision-making processes (77 per cent, up from 73 per cent in 2021).

Tenant statement:

• “He has always been committed to involving tenants in every aspect of his working life, he sees the value in having tenants involved in every aspect of housing services, and he wants tenants to be comfortable with anything that they do. Tenants are involved in Aberdeenshire Council, and they enjoy being involved in working groups, tenant groups, HRA meetings, tenancy management meetings, and now a tenant was recently invited onto an interview panel for our new Head of Housing. None of this would have been possible without Andrew. To add a final point, Andrew has also been known to visit food banks, not for food, but to talk to everyone that comes in, he wants to know how people are coping with the current cost of living crisis, doing this helps Andrew to make financial decisions, although he is generally very people centric in his professional life.”

• Individual nominated: Jovana (Joey) Lawrie
• Organisation: Homes for Good

Statement of support

Joey Lawrie has been central to Homes for Good since 2015. Starting as a tenancy support officer, now head of lettings and tenancy support, she is an integral part of the senior leadership team, playing a key role in Homes for Good’s growth. Joey demonstrates dedication to Homes for Good’s core values of kindness, fairness and doing the right thing. She manages a complex and at times high pressure workload with calm, resilience and wicked sense of humour. Homes for Good tenants, with wide ranging of support needs, benefit directly from Joey’s expertise. Over the years she has shaped Homes for Good tenancy support offering to be flexible and responsive - “We get to know our tenants and we flow around them”.

Her background in psychology and mental health is invaluable, evident when she is supporting our most vulnerable tenants, and in her training and guidance for the lettings and tenancy support teams. She has undoubtedly contributed to long-term tenancy sustainment for many people who, within a more traditional housing environment, would not have been able to keep their homes. She takes care of a small number of our tenants, often working closely with their families and advocating on their behalf with relevant agencies. She passes this way of working onto her team, providing regular micro training and support sessions to equip them with the skills they need. Homes for Good landlords also benefit hugely from Joey’s experience in the PRS, her knowledge of legislation, the Letting Agency Code of Practice, her market expertise and her ability to navigate the benefits system.

This year, Homes for Good took on a portfolio of 16 homes with complex family tenancies and historical property issues. Joey worked tirelessly to ensure the transition for both the landlord and the tenants was smooth. She provides valued market analysis for landlords growing their portfolios, advising on likely demand, tenant profile and rent levels.

• “I was so grateful for the work Joey put into analysing the property I was planning to buy – it was a level of detail I really didn’t expect – totally impressed” Portfolio Landlord.

A stickler for detail and deep expertise, Joey has successfully won several cases at First Tier Tribunal, ensuring fair outcomes for both tenant and landlords, based on well-documented facts and scrutiny of sometimes very difficult and emotive situations. She was praised recently by a Judge (for landlord possession due to tenant damage and substantial arrears) as being highly knowledgeable, thoroughly prepared and impressive in her delivery.

Joey is also the epitome of “doing the right thing”. She inspires her team and the rest of the company by acknowledging errors immediately, and taking steps to rectify them, with both tenants and landlords. This has instilled great confidence in the team, being able to see mistakes and learn from them, creating trust and transparency with tenants, landlords and each other.

In the last year, Joey has been central part to the senior leadership team, embracing challenges and opportunities presented to Homes for Good. In particular, navigating ever-changing government legislation, maximising rental income whilst ensuring tenants affordability, and supporting a programme of business improvement and transformation.

She sees every challenge as an opportunity to grow and progress personally and professionally, committed to doing the best for Homes for Good. Her team sees this first-hand, and it has created a strong sense of loyalty and trust.

Through successfully completing the Help to Grow Programme at Strathclyde Business School, Joey has now understands the wider context of running a social business, this can be seen in the decisions she now contributes to. This year, Homes for Good has expanded geographically, with a new offices and team in the South of Scotland, and a joint venture with Crisis, Good Place Lettings in London. Joey is at the heart of this, supporting the both teams with Homes for Good Know How, demonstrating compassionate leadership and clear commitment to excellence at every turn.

Outcomes and achievements

Joey, head of lettings and tenancy support, has been a valued leader with Homes for Good since 2015, when she joined a very small team as tenancy support officer. She demonstrates compassionate leadership with her team, landlords and tenants, navigating a variety of challenging situations with expertise, humour and fairness.

She is highly regarded by her colleagues, providing support and continuous learning opportunities for her team, celebrating successes and instilling confidence to learn from mistakes.

Recent achievements for Joey in the last 12 months include advocating for tenants with DWP and local authorities to maximise income and benefits; negotiating partnership arrangements with Right There and the Simon Community to provide housing for complex and vulnerable tenants; improving performance across a number of KPIs within the lettings team including time to let and rent collection; successful outcomes for landlords and tenants at First Tier Tribunal, and establishing Homes for Good's first replication in the South of Scotland. Joey is a central part of the HFG leadership team.